duism. These 'mothers' are guardian
goddesses, or fiends of disease, etc. One may not claim that all
C[=a]ktas are Civaites, but how small a part of Vishnuism is occupied
with Cakti-worship can be estimated only by surveying the whole body
of worshippers of that name.

We cannot leave the lust and murder of modern Civaism without speaking
of still another sect which hangs upon the heels of K[=a]l[=i], that
of the Thugs. It may, indeed, be questioned whether Civa should be
responsible for the doings of his spouse, K[=a]l[=i]. But like seeks
like, and there is every historical justification in making out Civa
to be as bad as the company he keeps. Durg[=a] and K[=a]l[=i] are not
vainly looked upon as Civa's female side. So that a sect like the
Thugs,[53] which worshipped K[=a]li, may, it is true, be taken out of
the Civaite sects, but only if one will split Civaism in two and
reproduce the original condition, wherein Civa was one monster and
K[=a]li was another; which is scarcely possible after the two have for
centuries been looked upon as identical. With this in mind it may be
granted that the Thugs payed reverence to K[=a]li, rather than to her
lord. Moreover, many of them were Mohammedans; but, for our purpose,
the significant fact is that when the Thugs were Hindus they were
K[=a]li-Civaites. And we believe that these secret murderers, strange
as it seems, originated in a reformatory movement. As is well known,
it was a religious principle with them not to spill blood.[54] They
always throttled. They were, of course, when they first became known m
1799 (Sherwood's account), nothing but robbers and murderers. But,
like the other Civaite monstrosities, they regarded their work as a
religious act, and always invoked K[=a]li if they were Hindus. We
think it probable, therefore, that the sect originated among the
K[=a]li-worshippers as a protest against blood-letting. Admitting that
robbery is under Civa's protection (Civa is 'god of robbers'), and
that K[=a]li wanted victims, a sect probably claimed that the victims
should be throttled, and not bled. Not that this was necessarily a new
reform. There is every reason to suppose that most of Civa's females
are aboriginal wild-tribe divinities. Now among these savages one sees
at times a distinct refusal to bleed human victims. Thuggery may then
have been the claim of an old conservative party, who wished to keep
up the traditional throttling; though this is pure speculation,